Twitter user numbers overtaken by China's Sina Weibo

There are now more people using Sina Weibo, the Chinese micro-blogging platform, than there are using Twitter. Sina Weibo is the most popular of China's micro-blogging services, and it is the preferred platform for most mainland Chinese newspapers and TV stations, which have millions of followers. Last year, seeing how popular live streaming video was becoming, Sina Weibo launched its own live streaming app, Yizhibo, nicknamed "Yi".Analysis: Kerry Allen, BBC Monitoring. The success of mobile messenger WeChat has challenged Sina Weibo in recent years, with increased smartphone ownership in the mainland influencing social media users to read news on their phones, instead of computer screens. Sina Weibo has remained competitive by making a number of strategic partnerships that have given host to an array of new functions, many of which go even beyond those of Twitter - which is blocked in China.